As he acquires information it may be given right back to the children. But this involves more hard work or study on the part of the teacher! No, it proves recreation. I think no one can take up botany, geology or zoology without finding the pursuit of the same a recreation. Every walk, every Saturday ramble, will add to the stores of knowledge and give zest to the ramble. When interest is fairly awakened, the teacher will take more and more rambles, with the result of better health and then better and more enjoyable work. Every teacher owes it to himself to have some elementary knowledge of the natural sciences. When the securing of this brings pleasure, profit and health, there certainly can be no valid reason for not securing it. In our next paper we will give some methods of teaching botany. PROF. G. G. GROFFIN in The Pennsylvania School. Bucknell University, Feb. 27, 1889. HISTORY. GENERAL CONCEPTION OF THE SUBJECT. It will generally be admitted that our historical instruction in the common schools is at least in an undeveloped condition. Whether we can draw lessons from past experience is a question for every one interested in reform and progress in the subject of history, for perhaps more than any other subject this one has suffered from the common misconception that it means only the dreary mass of dry facts, innumerable dates and various events strung along like so many beads on a chain with little or no connection with each other. Many teachers with a fair education do not appreciate its value and are inclined to regard it as a collection of stories merely, but not having any serious bearing upon the present active life of men. A child does not hate history, although many children so express it, but they do dislike the generalizations of the text-books. It was probably this that made the boy write on the fiy-leaf of his history: "If there should be another flood, For refuge hither fly; Though all the world should be submerged The number of boys and girls who really get interested in this subject is small; occasionally we find one who reads it from choice, but the great mass of children read it as a task. The great question here is not merely to impart a certain amount of knowledge in a given time, but it is to arouse an interest in place of indifference and to make our pupils searchers and thinkers instead of passive absorbers, for one great fault of the American people is, that they read too much and think too little--all reading and no meditation; faculties ruined instead of enlarged. History, with her stores of knowledge and bright realms of thought, offers the greatest field to the teacher for the development of his pupils. Romance records marvels; history records facts, and what could be more marvelous than the history of this country during the last century. A hundred years ago the colonists were struggling for existence. The United States had become a separate nation, but the situation of the country was peculiar and unlike any other that the history of the world had known-thrown into existence, as it were. But the close of the Revolutionary war had left the United States like a citadel overturned; its proportions destroyed and materials scattered. It was to be shown whether the eminent men who had been successful in securing its independence would be equal to the task of building up the country and putting it on solid footing. From that beginning we have grown a nation of 64,000,000 people, with a literary, financial, military, scientific and political history, each of which would fill volumes. This is more marvelous than fiction, and the interested teacher who realizes the importance of historical instruction will never find it dull work to teach a class in history if he himself is full of the subject. The teacher's work, however, like charity, begins at home. vate himself if he fills the cup of the thirsty. It is an axiom in educational work that "no subject can be taught as it ought to be so long as the teacher is wanting in a knowledge of the facts to be taught and their proper relation to each other." This is specially true of history from the nature of the subject. A knowledge of the bold facts and nothing more is of little value, for facts in history standing by themselves with no relation to other facts as causes, modifiers and consequences, are of scarcely more importance than the division table in arithmetic. History must be taught as the development of the human race from the beginning to modern civilization. The teacher must necessarily be the great factor who stands between the text-book and pupil to help him center his powers of mind upon questions whose solution can be reached by no other satisfactory progress. Then history will show him a vast panorama of American progress.-D. C. MURPHY IN Educational News. He must culti INSTITUTES. Alameda, October 29; Mariposa, October 29; Colusa, November 17; Sacramento, November 24. The following circular has been received from Hon. T. J. Morgan, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and is given publicity through the columns of the JOURNAL: DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, Hon. Ira G. Hoitt, Supt. of Public Instruction of the State of California, SIR: It is the prime purpose of the present administration of Indian Affairs to bring the Indian schools into relation with the public schools of the several States and Territories, in which Indian reservations are located, as rapidly as practicable. To this end I am modeling the schools under my supervision after the public schools as far as possible. In most of the States and Territories where there are Indians, some of them are located among the white settlers and white settlements generally surround the reservations. I deem it extremely desirable that, wherever practicable, the children of Indians residing on reservations or among the whites be induced to attend the public schools They will learn the ways of civilization and acquire the language much more rapidly if associated with white children in the public schools than in any other way. These Indians pay no taxes, and in many instances are either too poor or too indifferent to place their children in school. Many school districts adjacent to Indian reservations or containing Indian alloted lands are prevented from maintaining schools by the presence of the Indians who do not contribute in any way toward the support of such schools. In order especially that the Indians who break up their tribal relations and settle upon alloted lands may have opportunities of educating their children, and as an inducement to white settlers to invite Indian children to their schools and assist them to acquire the rudiments of an English education, I would be pleased to have you inform school officers and others interested, that the Indian Office is ready to enter into contracts with the school district officers or other properly qualified representatives of school districts for the tuition of Indian children at a rate of $10 per quarter, based upon the average attendance of Indian children during the quarter. Out of this $10 per quarter the school districts will be expected to supply necessary text-books to the Indian's children. The school district will contract distinctly to give to each Indian child all the opportunities and attention which are given to white children attending the school, and so far as possible prevent their white playmates from ridiculing them or in any way discouraging them or preventing their progress. The Government contributes this $10 per quarter directly for the purpose of benefitting the children of the Indians, its wards, for whose education the National Government is responsible. The fact that this is likewise a benefit to school districts having Indian citizens or are adjacent to Indian reservations must not be lost sight of. I feel that the whites of such localities are as much interested in this plan of educating the Indian children as the Indians are themselves; not only because of the money received, but especially because the Indians thus brought into the public schools and into pleasant relationship with white children will the more readily become fitted for good citizenship. I trust that you will co-operate with this office in the work of bringing these ignorant little ones into contact with our Christian civilization through the public schools. the best known rules, the weight of the stock in the farm yard; the contents of a stack of hay; the number of pounds of wire necessary to enclose a field; the number of tons of coal in a given space and such problems with which he is to come in daily contact. Give him just as little of so-called grammar and just as much of the English language as you can. Teachers, did you ever see anything equal to the disgust of the average country boy for grammar? In place of grammar give him literature. Don't ask him to write essays at first. Put into his hands an Elzevir edition of Sleepy Hollow and Rip Van Winkle, costing two cents each; read those aloud in the class; take plenty of time and comment as you go along; tell all you can about the Catskills and the Hudson, and don't forget to tell him the story of Irving's wooing and loss. Then interest him in Irving's Mahomot, in his Columbus; take Prescott next. While you are reading the conquest of Mexico you will be teaching literature, history, geography, and besides that, you will be unfolding a world of enchantment to a mind heretofore darkened. These books will lead up to Longfellow, and let me whisper in your ear to give him the Courtship of Miles Standish first. The heart of your country boy is a chivalric one and Priscilla will win his affections at once; then he will be ready to appreciate Evangeline. Turn your head away so as not to see the tear as it gathers on his eyelashes and the heroic attempt to take the quiver out of the lip when he, with Evangeline, kneels at the death bed of Gabriel in the "Quiet City of Penn.”’ You can do all this in one winter, and will not only get the reputation, so dear to all of us, of being good teachers, but you will have done material good to that pupil and have given him something which will be a solace and joy forever.-Nebraska School Journal. |